Origine et histoire

Patronymic surname meaning 'son of Jakob', the Swedish form of Jacob or James — from the Hebrew 'Ya'akov', meaning 'he who supplants' or 'holder of the heel', a reference to the biblical patriarch Jacob who grasped his twin Esau's heel at birth. The given name Jakob was popular in Sweden due to veneration of St James (Jakob) the Apostle, whose shrine at Santiago de Compostela was a major pilgrimage destination for medieval Swedes. The surname is distributed relatively evenly across Sweden, with slight concentrations in Norrland and on the island of Gotland.